Huge prison medical facility in works

California has put construction of the largest prison medical facility in the nation on the fast track in order to comply with a federal court order to improve health care for inmates.

The $900 million, 144-acre California Health Care Facility just outside of Stockton, which is about halfway built, will house 1,700 inmates too ill to live in regular housing, many of whom will require 24-hour nursing care, according to Southern California Public Radio. The project is part of the state’s effort to improve a prison medical system deemed so poor the federal government assumed an oversight role ensuring California spends the money needed for new prison medical facilities.

As California adopted lengthier prison sentences, many prisoners have remained incarcerated past the age when chronic disease develops. Nearly 70,000 of the state’s prisoners receive treatment for a chronic illness.